Smile of an Angel
by Araine
Summary: He is stately and strong, and she is beautiful, and they make a good match. [Uchiha Mikoto x Uchiha Fugaku. Oneshot. Drabbleesque. Implied SasuSaku]


**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto. Kishi-sensei does. I don't even own SasuMom, even though she is awesome to the max.

**Authors Notes: **So I've been poking around this website a bit, and I've seen a lot of Uzumaki Kushina x Namikaze Minato fanfiction that's been cropping up. And I thought "SasuMom needs some time in the spotlight, too!" So I gave her some. This is about Uchiha Mikoto and Uchiha Fugaku, and their life together. And yes, I did draw deliberate parallels between Sasuke and Fugaku. Anyways, hope you enjoy!

* * *

**ichi.**

When she first meets the man who is to be her fiancé, she smiles demurely and is shy. She is seventeen and is more focused on being a kunoichi than being a bride, so she doesn't know quite what to say. Instead she sits and fidgets, looking at her hands nervously as her parents and his parents talk over the arrangement.

She looks up, for a second, into the face of the man she will one day marry. His eyes are dark, and he is stoic, all stately angles and lines, and somehow she thinks that he looks bored.

She gives him a tiny, polite smile, before turning back to her nervous fidgeting. Fugaku is another Uchiha, just like her, though from a very distant branch of the family. Before this, she only ever really met him once, when she had been five years old and he had been ten.

She doesn't remember that meeting much, so to her, he is a stranger.

She doesn't want to be married to a stranger. She wants to be a kunoichi, go on adventures, get swept off her feet, and be a heroine.

But he is stately and strong, and she is beautiful, and they make a good match.

The first conversation she has with him is started on a piece of napkin, left over from dinner. She looks straight ahead as she writes underneath the table, her face betraying nothing of what she is doing. She is a kunoichi after all.

She smiles a little bit when she slides the napkin over to him. He picks it up and reads it:

_Are you bored?_

She sees him smile a little bit. A minute later, he slides the napkin back.

_A little._

* * *

**ni.**

When her friends learn just who her fiance is, they are jealous. She wonders why, because she never asked for this, it was her parents and his parents who decided on the match. It's not like they'll be getting married yet, anyways - though three years seems such a short time from now.

She still hopes for that adventure. But after a few weeks of getting used to the idea, she begins to wonder if maybe she isn't cut out for all that heroine stuff. So instead she smiled and shrugs off her friends' comments about her fiance.

She learns more about him that day than she learned in her entire time with him.

He was the Number One Rookie in his class, and passed the Chuunin exams on his first try through.

His favorite color is blue.

He works with the Konoha police.

He likes milk chocolate with almonds best of all.

He is secretly something of a romantic at heart, even if he is quiet and brooding and stoic.

He likes girls with light-colored hair - especially when they keep it long.

He also likes girls who can cook well, and his favorite food is either soufflés, apple pie, or pancakes with chocolate chips.

She later learns that half of these aren't founded on a grain of truth.

Some of them that are true, however, manage to surprise her.

A laugh and a friendly grin crosses her lips, as she continues to gossip with her friends.

* * *

**san.**

He insists on doing this right, which is why six months after their engagement he asks her out on a date.

She puts on a pretty outfit and a little bit of makeup, and waits for him to come pick her up. Her parents don't complain - after all, they were the ones to suggest the match - so she is the one left to fret about her upcoming date.

When he shows up, he is stiff and awkward, and he hands her a flower. He grabs her roughly by the hand, and pulls her out of the door, and she stumbles forward a little bit awkwardly. After they are outside, he lets go of her hand and pauses so that she can walk next to him.

They walk to the restaurant in awkward silence, until they are seated and eating and there is no need for conversation between the two of them. Even so, she can't help but glance up habitually at him to see him staring down at his own plate.

Once dinner is over, they leave. Fugaku insists on walking her back to her house, despite the fact that she is a kunoichi. He is a traditionalist. (And maybe he really is a bit of a romantic at heart, she can't help but think.) So they walk beside each other, avoiding each other's gaze and not speaking.

She feels a warm hand close around hers, and she looks down to see that he is holding her by the hand. She blushes, but looks at his face - he is turned away, but she can't help but wonder if maybe he is blushing a little bit, too.

She smiles shyly to herself at the thought.

* * *

**yon.**

The day of the wedding, she is dressed in white. She pulls on the kimono, and allows other people much more skilled than she is to tie it for her. She looks at her reflection, and she feels out of place in such beautiful clothes, so pure and brilliant.

But she walks proudly, with her head held high, through the ceremony. It is beautiful and ritualized, and Mikoto can't help but feel small and insecure even though all of her friends tell her that she is beautiful.

When it is all over and done with, they return to the Uchiha Neighborhood, and to the Uchiha Mansion. The house has been set aside for the two of them, and she walks timidly beside him to the bedroom. He smiles a little bit at her, helping her to remove her hair ornaments. His hands brush against her hair, and they are strong and warm and calming.

He kisses her softly, before untying the knot on her obi. The pure white kimono slips off her shoulders, and she is no longer just a bride but she is a woman.

She kisses him then, and his hands trace her back, and she smiles at him tenderly.

She may not love him passionately, but he is good and kind and strong, and she knows that he will be a good husband and a good father. And so she receives his kisses and his caresses, and she returns them gladly and with that tender smile.

She knows that she may yet grow to love him, and that is enough.

* * *

**go.**

She holds her newborn son in her arms, and she starts to cry.

She is tired, sweaty, exhausted for nearly ten hours of labor. She has spent an agonizing nine months in pregnancy, and an anxious while before that trying to conceive. She is twenty-two years old, and is a little bit scared of motherhood, and is shaking when they hand her that pink ball of flesh that is her son.

But he fits so well into her arms, so perfectly, and he stares up at her with bright blue eyes that will one day turn a dark, dark gray, and she can't help but think that all of this was _worth it._

He stretches out an arm, and manages to catch a strand of her hair with his fingers. She is crying tears of joy, and she smiles so brightly no one in the room could ever doubt her happiness. She wonders what he is going to become, when he grows up - if he will grow and become strong, or intelligent, if he will be quiet or loud or perhaps friendly or perhaps not.

She decides that she doesn't care who or what her son becomes, she will always love him.

She smiled up at her husband, who is standing in the door frame, looking on with pride. "He's beautiful," she says, voice choked with her tears of happiness.

He nods, and she knows that he is thinking of the infant in her arms as 'their child' as he steps forwards to her bedside. He caresses her cheek with a warm, firm hand, drying away her tears though they still keep coming.

She smiled and croons out the name they have already picked out. "Itachi."

The baby gurgles a little and reaches out a small hand at the sound of his name.

* * *

**roku.**

When little Sasuke is born, she has more experience as a mother. She brings him home wrapped in blankets and holds him to her breast because he is small and precious and tender, and he is her baby, all hers.

Even at the precocious age of seven, Itachi is being noticed for his talents. They speak of her son as 'that genius Itachi', and are keeping a close eye on him, already considering allowing him to join the Ninja Academy.

She is proud of all of Itachi's accomplishments, and she knows that Fugaku is more proud. When they are alone, he is constantly talking of their sons, and how they will both grow to be great. But even so, she looks at Itachi and thinks of the tiny child she has watched grow up all these years and thinks that maybe he's growing up too fast.

He walks up to her with soft steps and wide, observant eyes. His hand that is so little, but already sports kunai scars, tugs on her skirt. She kneels down to look her son in the eyes.

"Itachi-kun, meet your little brother," she says to him, holding out the baby for him to hold.

He takes the blanket-swathed bundle into his arms, almost timidly. For a moment he holds the sleeping Sasuke, before handing him back to his mother with a nod.

"He's so… pink," Itachi observes, still staring at the bundle in her arms.

Mikoto nods to him, explaining that Sasuke is a baby, and he looked the very same way when he was first born. Itachi nods in understanding, before scampering off. She sends a last, fleeting look toward her eldest son - but Sasuke is waking up now, opening his dark eyes and making restless noises.

So she turns away, with something of a sad smile crossing her face.

* * *

**nana.**

She learns in time that her husband is a closed off and private person. He is proud, and he doesn't often speak his mind to others. He has been raised to be the head of the Uchiha Clan, and he retains that clan pride in every aspect of what he does.

He tries to be an upstanding role model for his children, a leader for the clan, a strong shinobi for the village - he is like a rock, repeatedly weathered and beaten but still he is strong. It is only when he is alone with her that he allows that stone shell to crack.

They are most intimate with each other when they are alone. He sits with her and strokes her hair, and she embraces him softly, and he speaks and she listens and she speaks and he listens. It is the time when all walls of pride and pretense are down between them, and they can lay bare all their thoughts and feelings.

He tells her about how he sees Itachi as the pride of the clan, how he sees a successor in the precocious genius who is already a Chuunin and well on his way to advancing from that level. He speaks of the burden that he is putting onto the shoulders of his son, a burden that he believes him ready for but still laments having to give him

He talks of Sasuke, and how he is always chasing after his brother. He is five years old, and already looks up to his older brother as a rival. He speaks of how Sasuke reminds him of his own childhood, in a way that Itachi can't, because Itachi is a true genius.

He speaks of the day that both his sons will surpass him. The day that they will both go out into the world and do great things, and she knows that he is right, that they will both become great, that they will both shine in time.

On those nights that they spend together, she leans against him and he kisses her brow and murmurs tender words to her. Words of love and faithfulness and caring, and she loves him for all that he is - her husband, the father of her two wonderful boys, a strong shinobi, the proud patriarch of his clan.

It is in these moments that she loves him, and she thinks that she couldn't be happier with her life. She is whole and she is happy. She may never have gotten a fairytale, but she is happy and that is all that she can ask for.

She smiles softly to herself and watches her family as they grow.

* * *

**hachi.**

She sees her family breaking before she even recognizes what is going on.

It starts with Itachi. He becomes reclusive, keeping to himself for hours at a time, always off on missions or training and never at home. He hardly seems to speak to anyone, except perhaps Sasuke - but even then, he is mostly avoidant and antisocial.

She continues to love him endlessly. He is her child, her baby, her Itachi, and she cannot help but love him. She does not understand him, whatever he is going through, and it hurts her to know that she doesn't.

Still, she makes an effort to be there for him. She packs his lunch faithfully every day, and sends him off with a smile. She receives him at home with a smile and a welcome, and asks about how ANBU is going. Shisui's death changes him - he is no longer the Itachi she knows. He seems to stalk the house when he is there, and his eyes seem to gaze off into distant space as though his mind is elsewhere.

That is when the strain between Itachi and Fugaku starts. Her husband, she knows, is afraid. He feels like Itachi is slipping away from him, and he feels helpless. She tries her best to comfort him, and to reconcile Itachi, but she doesn't know how.

Sasuke, too, starts to become troubled. He asks her about his father, and his older brother, and if they hate each other. He throws himself after his older brother relentlessly, trying to keep up, and Mikoto is a little bit sad that they have both grown up so fast.

She puts ointment on his bruises affectionately, and reassures him that everything is fine. Even if she too is afraid that her family, her happiness that she has managed to build for herself, is falling apart.

She tries to smile, for all of them. Because she has to hold her family together.

* * *

**kyu.**

She stares up into the face of the killer who is still her son.

His features are familiar, even if they are twisted and cruel and so empty they burn. His eyes are dark, cold, as he stares down the two who are his biological parents. He holds no love for them, she understands, and she feels she could cry at the thought.

He draws a kunai, and her husband demands to know why.

Mikoto already understands, in her own way. Itachi felt he was alone, isolated and without anyone to relate to. His genius made him cold and shut off from others, until all that was left was his loneliness. And they never saw that, never understood it.

He snaps the kunai up and she knows in a split second that it is for her. Not only that, but she knows that she can't possibly dodge - he is too fast, and anyways, she can't fight him.

It imbeds itself below her breastbone, and she stumbles to the floor. She looks at him with pleading, dark, mother's eyes, and he stares back and for a second she sees the tiny infant she held in her arms, the precocious five-year-old genius, the hope of the clan he once was.

"Itachi," she whispers, and her face curls into a tiny smile. The last smile she will ever give, and it is for him, the very man who killed her.

Because she loves him, despite what he became.

As the world slowly starts to go numb, she falls to the ground. She thinks of conversations on napkins and gossip with friends, walks home after midnight and tender kisses, her two sons so alike and so different, her husband and her life and her family that had all seemed so perfect.

As she fades, she drifts.

And she wonders where they went wrong.

* * *

**juu.**

The mother in heaven watches her son from above, a smile on her face. He is strong, resilient, proud, intelligent, and everything that she could have ever hoped for. Despite all the hardship in his past, he has become happy, with his friends.

She watched with a smile as Sasuke walks to the training grounds beside the pink-haired medic. They speak of nothing, as he walks her safely along the road to her where their team is waiting. They have just had breakfast together, as they have planned to meet up before they convened with their team.

He steals a glance at her, but she doesn't notice. He looks away for a second, but still his eyes wander cautiously over to her face and he watches her as they walk along. Eventually, and without a word, his hand slips into hers.

She blushes and looks down to see that he is holding her hand. She looks up to his face, curiosity in her green eyes, and asks, "Sasuke-kun…?"

"Hn," he mutters, and he turns away with a slight blush on his cheeks. 

The kunoichi blushes and does the same, and they continue walking. As soon as they are in sight of the training grounds, Sasuke drops her hand. But a small smile crosses his face.

"Oi! I was waiting for you!" a blond boy calls from the training grounds. "Even Kakashi beat you two! What were you guys doing, making out or something?"

Sasuke glares at his teammate, and the pink-haired kunoichi punches him in the jaw. However, second later they share a secret smile at the expense of the blond.

And Uchiha Mikoto smiles from heaven, because at least one of them ended up happy in the end. 


End file.
